Objective 1: To understand the food system that feeds people
Materials
Picture: Steps in the Food System
Story: The Story of Miguel's Tomatoes
Concept: The system that provides us with food involves many steps
Content
Steps involved in the food system include:
- Getting ready to grow food
- Growing the food
- Moving food from the field
- Processing, selling, or storing the food
- Preparing and eating the food.
- Each of these steps involves many processes and
considerations. And each process may involve many people, such as bankers,
agriculture suppliers, extension workers, farmers and farm workers, truck
drivers, food handlers, millers, bakers, as well as different conditions, such as
weather, roads and economic and political stability. It is this complexity
that makes our food supply vulnerable.
- The number of steps involved and the processes in
each step depend on the specific situation for each community and family.
- Local food systems, including home gardening and
small farms, may decrease the complexity of the processes involved, or even
eliminate steps such as moving, processing or selling. Home gardens can
increase family security by providing sufficient food for the family, as well
as income from garden surplus.
- However, even a home garden may depend on other people to
supply certain needs such as seeds, tools, fertilizer, milling of grain or
rental of land and farm equipment. And all farms are vulnerable to weather
conditions.
- The Story of Miguel's Tomatoes is designed to trigger
discussions about each of the steps in the food system. It can be read to
younger children to illustrate how food is grown, transported and processed.
- Older children can read the story alone or in groups. The discussion can be more
detailed for older children, and include asking them to imagine all of the additional processes
involved with each step in the journey of the tomatoes and what would happen if things
went wrong (no rain, Miguel got sick and could not care for the plants, the truck to the
city broke down and the tomatoes spoiled, etc.). The teacher can lead a discussion about
the ultimate effects of a breakdown at any stage of the food system on the food supply of
a community.
Activities
- Ask the children where we get our food. (If they say a
market or the grocery store ask them where do the markets and grocery stores
get the food?) Tell them the food starts with the farmer.
- Now tell the children that you are going to read a story about a farmer and his tomatoes.
Ask them to think about all of the things that might happen to the food before it is
eaten. Read The Story of Miguel's Tomatoes out loud to the children.
Discussion
Hold up the picture Steps in the Food System. Tell the children that there are five major
steps that must happen for food to be available.
- Getting ready to grow food
- Growing the food
- Moving food from the field
- Processing, selling or storing the food
- Preparing and eating the food.
The Story of Miguel's Tomatoes
Ask the children to think about these food system steps in the story about Miguel and his
tomatoes.
Getting ready to grow food:
- What did Miguel need to begin growing his tomatoes?
Seeds, fertilizer, a plough and land.
- What would happen if these were not available? Could Miguel grow tomatoes without these
supplies?
Growing the food:
- What did Miguel need for the tomatoes to grow?
Sunshine, rain, his hands to work, weed and care for the tomatoes (labour),
understanding of growing food, the land and agriculture (education/knowledge).
- Could Miguel's tomatoes have grown if these were not available?
Moving food from the field:
- Where were Miguel's tomatoes moved to after he and Ana
picked them?
- Some were taken to Miguel and Ana's house to be eaten
for dinner or to put into jars to store.
- The rest were taken to the village market by Miguel in a
cart.
- At the village market they were loaded into a truck
and taken to the city.
- Some were taken to the city market.
- The rest were taken
to the food processing factory.
- How far did the tomatoes travel for Miguel and Ana's
dinner?
- How far did the tomatoes travel to get to the city?
How did they make this journey? (Miguel's cart, Pedro's truck).
- What would happen to the tomatoes if the cart or truck broke down on the way?
Processing or selling the food:
- How did Ana process the tomatoes?
- How did Miguel sell his tomatoes?
- How did Pedro re-sell the tomatoes?
- What happened to the tomatoes at the food processing factory?
Eating the food:
- Discuss how people need money to buy food unless
they grow their own as Miguel and Ana do.
- Discuss how people must understand how to use the food safely and choose foods that
keep them healthy.
- Discuss the problems that could arise with each of the above steps and how the food would
then not be available for people to eat.
- Discuss the difference between the foods that were eaten directly by Miguel and Ana
from their field and the tomatoes that came back in a can.
